Objectives: The aim of this study is to evaluate the infectious risk of the hysteroscopy.
Methods: A prospective study was carried for nine months in the Belle-de-Mai maternity, in Marseille. We performed 81 operative or diagnostic hysteroscopies. A vaginal sample was achieved before the intervention and an endo-uterine sample after the procedure. The statistical analysis used the Chi 2 test.
Results: Fifty per cent of the patients of whom vaginal sample was contaminated present an endo-uterine sample infected at the end of an operative hysteroscopy. In 25% of cases, whereas the vaginal sample was normal, the endo-uterine prelevment was infected. The relative risk of the endo-uterine bacterial contamination, in case of vaginal contamination was 8.75 during this procedure. Within diagnostic hysteroscopy, no patient with a normal vaginal sample, was contaminated. No patent infection was observed.
Conclusion: There is a risk of endo-uterine contamination during hysteroscopy. This risk is higher when the vaginal sample is contaminated before the intervention. This risk is smaller than the infectious risk of hysterectomy.